<
>

Couple sentenced for photos of Bayern president Uli Hoeness in prison

A former prisoner who served with Uli Hoeness has been sentenced to a further 14 months in jail because he took photos with a hidden camera of the Bayern Munich president while he was incarcerated for tax evasion.

"His wife smuggled in a pen with a digital camera and the man took two photos and a video sequence where Mr. Hoeness can be seen and heard,'' Landsberg-am-Lech courthouse spokesman Alexander Kessler said on Thursday.

The woman, who unsuccessfully attempted to sell the footage after smuggling it out again, received an eight-month suspended sentence.

Hoeness had initiated the criminal complaint, Kessler said.

Hoeness, one of the most prominent figures in German football, had been serving a 42-month prison sentence for evading more than €28.5 million in taxes via an undeclared Swiss bank account. He was released in February 2016 after serving half the sentence.

Hoeness subsequently returned to his previous position as president of Bayern, which he quit in March 2014. He had remained close to the club while in custody, benefiting from a work-release program in its youth department before returning to prison overnight.

As a player, Hoeness was a Bayern star who won the 1972 European Championship and the 1974 World Cup with West Germany and three straight European Cups -- the predecessor of the Champions League -- before retiring in 1979 with chronic knee problems.

Under his guidance as general manager, Bayern built financial reserves rarely seen in debt-ridden European football.